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Forest Protection

Forest Protection

Our forests provide drinking water for 60 million people. The relationship between land and water is clear: what you do to the land, you do to the water.

The Wilderness Society works with people to protect our national forests. From local communities to members of Congress, from timber workers to folks in the White House, we are working to save our forests.

Local communities depend on forests and forests depend on the communities that surround them. Federal forest policies need to work for the people as well as the land.

One of the ways in which we protect our forests is through legislation in Congress. By working with lawmakers, we can find solutions that protect our forests and the livelihoods of the people who depend on forests for jobs.

Did you know there are about 380,000 miles of roads in our national forests? That’s enough to travel around the earth at the equator 15 times. Left over from a bygone era of poor logging practices, many of these roads are no longer in use and have fallen into disrepair, leading to serious problems in our forests.

Roadless national forest lands are some of the most pristine in America. They were not affected by the timber boom in the 1950s to 1980s, and have not been destroyed by mining or other reckless development. The Wilderness Society is working to conserve roadless areas across the United States.

Thanks to the Roadless Rule, 50 million acres of national forest roadless areas are protected from new roads and logging. After powerful industries tried to fight them in the courts, this rule is now the law of the land.

Colorado and Idaho have proposed their own roadless rules that pertain only to areas in the state. This means that local communities and The Wilderness Society are constantly advocating for the protection of the many thousands of acres of roadless forests left unprotected in these two states.

Map and infographics showing the region of the plan, what matters in the Pacific Northwestt (1), what people want in a Northwest Forest Plan (2) and what most voters support in a revised Northwest Forest plan (3). A two page summary of the polls results is below the map and infographics.

statewide survey of 600 registered voters in Washington, Oregon and California, with an additional oversample of 200 registered voters in California counties, was conducted by telephone using professional interviewers, including 45% of all interviews conducted via cell phone.

“We Can’t Wait: Why we need reform of the federal coal program now,” shows how the industry has been passing on millions in costs every day to the public. The status quo of the program has impacted public lands to the tune of billions of dollars and could multiply if coal companies aren’t held responsible for cleanup as they go bankrupt. Damages due to climate change from mining emissions will cost billions and drinking water for entire cities could be lost to mining or polluted beyond safe drinking levels.